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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWave Goodbye To The US Postal Service -- GOP Poised To Kill It
From ThinkProgress:
If Congress does not pass legislation that would save the Postal Service from financial collapse before the end of its current session, the future of the countrys mail service will be in the hands of a senator who opposes government unions and thinks the Postal Service should be privatized.
In January, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) is slated to take over as chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which oversees the federal workforce and the entire Postal Service. Johnson has said that the Postal Service should go through a bankruptcy process that would result in a downsized, private corporation that would lose the benefits of governmental oversight and regulation. It could also allow the revised entity to terminate or substantially modify its contracts, including its collective bargaining agreements with various postal unions.
Last year, Sens. Tom Carper (D-DE) and Tom Coburn (R-OK) introduced the Postal Reform Act of 2014 which would restructure the needless requirement that the agency pre-fund 75 years worth of employee health benefits, a demand no other businesses or institutions face. The bill would also allow for a gradual end to Saturday mail service if financially necessary, as well as the eventual termination of door-to-door service, but would not mandate either of these steps.
Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe, who is set to retire early next year, has said the bipartisan legislation would be best for the Postal Service, but postal unions and commercial mailers oppose many features of the legislation. While the unions support some of the core principals, including changes to the pre-funded mandate, they say a switch to a five-day delivery would eliminate tens of thousands of jobs. At the same time, mass mailers say the Carper/Coburn bill would continue higher postal rates which would stifle business, causing the volume of mail to decline further.
drm604
(16,230 posts)riversedge
(70,350 posts)Our Dumb Senator
www.ourdumbsenator.com/
Professor of Environmental Studies The guy who said climate change is caused by sunspots, #OurDumbSenator Ron Johnson, got nailed this week for rolling ...
You've visited this page 4 times. Last visit: 9/2/14
Ron Johnson | Uppity Wisconsin
www.uppitywis.org/tags/ron-johnson
Uppity Wisconsin
Oct 15, 2014 - U.S. Senator Ron Johnson chimed in last week and downplayed the notion .... Once again Our Dumb Senator attempts to bully down someone ...
Daily Kos: our dumb senator
www.dailykos.com/news/our%20dumb%20senator
Daily Kos
Jan 25, 2013 - our dumb senator ... Senator Ron Johnson Tries to Paper Over His 2 Very Public Failures ... Senate Republicans (soon to be) in disarray.
You've visited this page 2 times. Last visit: 11/19/14
Senator Ron Johnson Tries to Paper Over His 2 Very Public ...
www.dailykos.com/.../-Ron-Johnson-Tries-to-Paper-Over-His-...
Daily Kos
Jan 25, 2013 - John Kerry - nominated to replace her - hit the Wisconsin senator for missing a Benghazi briefing .... Still Our Dumb Senator until 2016.
http://www.uppitywis.org/tags/ron-johnson
Ron Johnson
Ron Johnson: Skills gap? Nah... it's a "willingness to work gap"
Submitted by Jud Lounsbury on Wed, 10/15/2014 - 7:39am
It's the classic chicken and the egg question: Did Wisconsin's job crisis come from lack of good jobs or is the problem that there simply aren't enough qualified people to fill the jobs?
Governor Scott Walker says "there are plenty of jobs," but suggests that most job applicants are hopped-up on drugs-- a dream job is within their grasp, only to lose it when they fail the drug test.
U.S. Senator Ron Johnson chimed in last week and downplayed the notion of a skills gap, saying the problem was that people would rather sit home and collect unemployment: "I think its more of a willingness to work gap." (see below)................
Skidmore
(37,364 posts)as part of its duties?
Deny and Shred
(1,061 posts)"Congress shall have the power ... to establish Post Offices and post Roads."
It says they have the power to do so. It doesn't say it is mandatory.
glinda
(14,807 posts)billhicks76
(5,082 posts)We cannot put up with Centrist Democrat sell outs any longer. War has been declared on us and we are still playing footsie. We are totally screwed unless we start electing Progressives with some backbone. Obama by the way would surely stand up for us on this. Let the Repukes embarrass themselves.
drm604
(16,230 posts)He can't veto their refusal to do something.
yuiyoshida
(41,867 posts)WTF are they thinking? You know not long ago, I ordered an item. The company was going to ship it to me by UPS. I told them no. Had they shipped it by UPS, I would have to take a taxi down to South San Francisco to get it costing me 40 dollars round trip. (This is because UPS will not deliver it to my house, they refuse because it would not be safe for the item to be put by my front door. It would be stolen.) IF on the other hand, they send it by US MAIL, the post office is only 10 blocks away. I can walk there and get the item, and it costs me nothing. The company agreed to send it by US mail and I got my package.
With The Post office gone, I will never EVER order anything by UPS..not unless I want to pay a taxi 40 dollars..just to go get it.
Frustratedlady
(16,254 posts)riversedge
(70,350 posts)Historic NY
(37,454 posts)Meanwhile its the only branch in the government that is not funded by taxpayer dollars. Its the only branch mandated by the government to fully prefundl its pension & health insurance every year at 5.5 billion dollars. The funds have more money than there are workers of future workers.
The Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006 is strangling the Post Office.
Frustratedlady
(16,254 posts)Marr
(20,317 posts)TeamPooka
(24,264 posts)Historic NY
(37,454 posts)just like the Social Security heist in April 1983.
The Social Security Amendments of 1983 laid the foundation for 30-years of federal embezzlement of Social Security money in order to use the money to pay for wars, tax cuts and other government programs. The payroll tax hike of 1983 generated a total of $2.7 trillion in surplus Social Security revenue. This surplus revenue was supposed to be saved and invested in marketable U.S. Treasury bonds that would be held in the trust fund until the baby boomers began to retire in about 2010. But not one dime of that money went to Social Security. - See more at: http://www.fedsmith.com/2013/10/11/ronald-reagan-and-the-great-social-security-heist/#sthash.HhH3pJVB.dpuf
lpbk2713
(42,769 posts)They want to bust up the Postal Workers union so bad they can't stand it.
Triana
(22,666 posts)randys1
(16,286 posts)postal service.
You are being attacked exactly as if an armed group of ISIL terrorists were holding the USPS headquarters for ransom.
Rightwingers want to destroy America and replace it with a corporate theocracy and we are letting them.
This has NOTHING to do with politics, this is a hostile attack on our country, takeover if you will.
There is a revolution happening and it is the kind that destroys us.
Initech
(100,108 posts)It's truly disgusting what the republicans and Tea Party are doing to our government. They have been sent to do the evil bidding of the billionaire class. They no longer represent the people of the United States. They represent the Fortune 400. They are destroying our government from within. If that's not terrorism I don't know what is.
randys1
(16,286 posts)First, whichever legislators are responsible for the lack of regs there, and I know the new governor is one, need to be indicted for 2nd degree manslaughter and be sued for hundreds of millions of dollars by the family of the TWO BROTHERS who died INSTANTLY when the gas leaked at one of these situations.
I should do a thread on this, but the point is when rightwing voters family members start dying, and they will, at the hands of republicans who threw away regulations and oversight, then things might change but WE must keep dying until they grow up.
bigbrother05
(5,995 posts)the non-critical thinkers will continue to vote for the ones that reinforce their fears.
When it can be succinctly shown that the election of the ones that want gov't to fail are the reason that gov't is failing, we stand a chance.
Just trying to find those two or three things that might sway an undecided voter is a losing proposition, there are too many variables. We have to make the case for competent gov't promoting the common good and protecting our rights and health.
Dustlawyer
(10,497 posts)we will uncover all kinds of problems, violations.
In the BP Texas City, Texas explosion March 23, 2005, where 15 were killed and thousands injured they had thousands of violations they were fined for, then fined again when they failed to fix most of them. The problem is that they reduce the fines to almost nothing before it is over. Also, with damages capped so that a jury cannot financially punish the oil companies enough to discourage their shortcuts. Their short cut may save them 50 million, if someone dies they pay a couple of million maybe. Next time they will still take the short cut. Also, BP went to the Texas legislature after this case and had them pass a law that would prevent any lawsuits in the future should something happen to a contractor at their facilities. The contracting companies worker's comp policy will now extend to cover the refinery owners and bar any suits.
kelly1mm
(4,735 posts)Congress the power (not the duty) to establish post offices and post roads.
Dont call me Shirley
(10,998 posts)hugo_from_TN
(1,069 posts)there's no difference between the parties...that's what DU told me!
Good thing we say on our hands and sent the message that this is what we wanted to happen.
jeff47
(26,549 posts)So even ignoring the Democrats that voted for the bill, Democrats have had 8 years to fix this.
Republican obstruction? Democrats had both houses of Congress and the Presidency from 2009 to 2011. They didn't fix the 2006 bill.
It really doesn't matter if one party says nice things if they refuse to actually do them.
randys1
(16,286 posts)I will fight people like you to save Women from dying in back alleys
jeff47
(26,549 posts)Or even talked about fixing it.
Just like they have not introduced an "abortion access act" to "save Women from dying in back alleys".
Democrats talk a good game. They need to actually follow that talk with action. That way women won't actually die in back alleys.
randys1
(16,286 posts)jeff47
(26,549 posts)We were already getting moderate-to-centrist Republican policy when Democrats were nominally in-charge.
This may be my single largest grievance against the Democrats.
RedstDem
(1,239 posts)Henry waxman/tom Davis
Fuck em both. The money wants this to happen.
RoverSuswade
(641 posts)Senior Citizen housing I suppose.
Runningdawg
(4,526 posts)but there are a lot of brown people and poor people who need to be locked up. The post offices will become privately run prisons and TPTB will take credit for creating jobs.
RoverSuswade
(641 posts)Joni Ernst can be the warden.
Thor_MN
(11,843 posts)Who will then make a killing on them.
Starry Messenger
(32,342 posts)It's already happening.
awoke_in_2003
(34,582 posts)will be UPS. They will sell off the land they don't want.
unblock
(52,387 posts)Ampersand Unicode
(503 posts)Technology evangelists and CEOs hate the USPS, saying it's a waste of taxpayer money to fund the preferred communication method of obsolete Luddites who should just die off already and quit standing in the way of digital progress. They're even over e-mail by now and want to shove everyone in the direction of texting, smartphones and social media. Online billing and Apple Pay/Twitter Square, too, and "e-print" magazines. Heck, Hallmark is losing money because people send "e-cards" or Facebook people on birthdays and anniversaries rather than send cards. The big-money nerds have no sense of sentimentality or emotion about the human experience. People like getting cards and letters, and want something more personal than an automated Mail Merge-type thing from anti-social media that says, "Happy Birthday|Anniversary|Graduation|<custom event>, <firstname> <lastname>!"
Fuck the corporate-fetishist rethugs, and fuck the socially inept Borg in the Bay Area. They'll take my Forever Stamps and even junk mail from my cold winter hands!
Odin2005
(53,521 posts)ChiciB1
(15,435 posts)how or why this will work. I stated below that here in Florida a huge chunk of land was purchased by Amazon, but don't know for what. Could be this is what is being planned. I'm really confused.
We used to have Savings & Loan banks, local banks etc., but now that's gone. So it's just more POWER for the holders in HUGE CORPORATE BANKS, right?
I'm not even sure what I just said made any sense either.
freshwest
(53,661 posts)They are still hiring at my local Post Office. And all other places that get federal funds. But it's all up in the air right now and seems disorganized.
Blue Idaho
(5,060 posts)Will be the straw that breaks the elephants back? When will Americans realize the TeaPublican party is slowly but surely destroying more than two centuries of American dreams and progress? They are more than a political party they have become the enemy from within.
ReRe
(10,597 posts)... they are our domestic enemies.
spanone
(135,900 posts)lpbk2713
(42,769 posts)the thieves and liars who get voted in to office will plunder as much as they can
get away with. And they will laugh all the way to the bank while doing it too.
Jamaal510
(10,893 posts)3catwoman3
(24,072 posts)...go after military retirements.
Wounded Bear
(58,743 posts)I haven't voted Repub in decades. Likely never will again.
glinda
(14,807 posts)drm604
(16,230 posts)arikara
(5,562 posts)is trying to do the same thing here in Canada.
Sunlei
(22,651 posts)wait until the RW gets hold of your 'border control' and privatizes border guards and 'the Mounties'.
It is a good thing the private/for profit prison industry was declared unconstitutional for Canadian prisoners.(forced to close the prison they opened)
Or Canada would have 1 in 10 of your citizens in 'for profit' prison industry at 27+k a yr. each in tax cost.
arikara
(5,562 posts)Well Harper is anyhow, the rest are just tagalongs because he micromanages the whole gong show. He now has the CRA (Canadian Revenue Agency, same as your IRS) which is of course supposed to be non partisan, auditing charities who say anything he doesn't like. Recently they hit a small birdwatching club who spoke out against the pesticides that harm bees. They're going after poverty and hunger groups and more. But... places like the neo-con group Fraser Institute, a "think tank" that bills itself as a charity and pronounces on about conservative issues AND does nothing charitable in any way of course gets left alone.
He made cuts to the CRA and I guess whoever is left there is in fear of their jobs and are toeing the line. What a bunch of bastards.
Sunlei
(22,651 posts)My mail carrier said, they now have to deliver amazon packages all Sundays and Holidays.
Amazon assists in breaking union worker hours.
arikara
(5,562 posts)They can't make them work on their days off. Are they hiring more people to deliver amazon parcels? If so, that would be a good thing wouldn't it?
tammywammy
(26,582 posts)ReRe
(10,597 posts)... the privatization of our postal system. Otherwise, they would be fighting against it.
Ampersand Unicode
(503 posts)Silicon Valley 'spergatrons have no soul and don't care about letter writing or birthday cards. I don't fucking want to read a book or magazine on my iPad, thank you. I like the physical feel of being human that Bozos and Suckerborg just don't get. "Mindblind," I guess.
Odin2005
(53,521 posts)Tuesday Afternoon
(56,912 posts)Sunlei
(22,651 posts)fredamae
(4,458 posts)I understand it thusly:
USPS must have Amassed an Enormous Fortune over the years under the 2006 GOP legislation requiring the USPS to amass a retirement fund to cover 75 years forward and they were statutorily mandated to do this with-in 10 years. That is Why the USPS struggles. If it weren't for these Billions that are required to be dumped into this fund annually - The USPS would be in Fine shape.
So, the GOP just needs to declare USPS bankrupt, usurp the money, leave retirees in the street and Privatize for UPS/FedX et al, our Constitutionally established postal service. The only thing left to do for GOP? Laugh all the way to the bank.
That is EXACTLY what the endgame is here. Steal for Wall$treet.
That's exactly what they have their eye on. Money, money, money, money, money, More, more, more more, more.
hifiguy
(33,688 posts)now write the laws of the United States. As long as you steal with a computer and a telephone you are free to steal as much as you want with no consequences whatsoever. Stick up the liquor store with a BB pistol and your ass is going to jail for a long, long while. Steal in a suit and you are a Hero of American Capitalism.
You've got it down, hifiguy. And thank you for your postings on this website.
Wounded Bear
(58,743 posts)It's what they want to do with Social Security.
Book it.
The Wielding Truth
(11,415 posts)moondust
(20,017 posts)They're possessed.
Wall Street is always on the lookout for huge piles of money they can get their hands on and use to pump up their stocks--and collect a lot of fees along the way for doing it.
DonCoquixote
(13,616 posts)have have mailmen, we will not.
flamingdem
(39,332 posts)but from all accounts he appears to be upholding the Republican desire to screw the Post Office workers and the rest of us who depend on the Post Office.
RedstDem
(1,239 posts)A pox on both their houses.
sammy750
(165 posts)The voters continue to elect them to office so only those that oppose the GOP can complain. The GOP is against anything that makes life good in American. The oppose health insurance for those that need it, They prefer the sick and the drain on the tax payers for medical care of the uninsured.
Why do they continue to get elected. Well it was recently noted that the American people are the most ignorant in the world. This is real telling.
I think one big issue is the constant LIES and misinformation from the GOP, Fox News and the Conservative radio hosts. They LIE daily to the people and they finally believe it.
Lots of the people don't have the internet to get the truth told to them.
And Republicans say they want to create jobs, yet they want to destroy the thousands of jobs for the Postal workers.
EEO
(1,620 posts)ChiciB1
(15,435 posts)are going to react. I'm a bit confused about all of this, so it's Fed-EX or UPS that will deliver mail if this goes through. AND you have to do everything online or what? I heard Amazon bought a big chunk of land up in north Florida, so wonder if this is all connected. Well, seems it would be, but this is confusing to me.
I know people who don't have computers or even want them. What if they can't afford to buy a computer or some other communication?
Guess they'll make it clear as mud soon, bur right now I don't understand how this will work. I stay confused all the time trying to keep up with more and more technology, drives me crazy!
I don't think I've ever been happier to be older and retired. My husband worked at a union company and the benefits can't be underestimated IMO. From retirement account to health insurance coverage.
What are we going to call this country, the United States of Confusion and Obfuscation? If ever there will be a lesson perhaps this will wake people up by VOTING! But not counting on it! I vote by absentee, how will that work? Don't trust voting all that much right now, so putting it on a computer means nothing really. You don't KNOW if vote gets counted anyway, I asked about this recently. I was told I could check online to see IF my absentee was received, but how do I know it was counted? Didn't get an answer!
Too many questions right now, don't think any of us really know the bottom line.
ReRe
(10,597 posts)Well, since it will be an actual for-profit business:
Maybe they will let the mail recipients choose how many days of the week they want delivery of their mail? Because the New PO will charge for each day of mail delivery.
And/Or, maybe they'll just double the charge on everything: postage, mailers, etc.
Peregrine Took
(7,417 posts)Scuba
(53,475 posts)kairos12
(12,882 posts)byronius
(7,402 posts)Right up there with rigging elections and arranging small plane disasters.
Conservative Means Criminal.
redstatebluegirl
(12,265 posts)The blue collar white voter continues to vote against their own best interests. Idiots!
Elmer S. E. Dump
(5,751 posts)okieinpain
(9,397 posts)for the last 6 years while in the minority. the people we have in the senate can't do the same thing for the next 2 years.
LuckyLib
(6,821 posts)children in poverty? Meh! Unemployed folks? Meh! Their priorities are clear -- dismantle the PO.
Anansi1171
(793 posts)...because its wreckable. Wasnt this their vision for the auto bailout? Bankruptcy in rigged circuit where republican multi-location auto dealers can conglomerate and ratf--- the enterprise.
I smell Dan Gilbert in this- Quicken Loans buys the post office and offers hold-a-check payday loans. You pay it back or they will hold your check and all other mail.
Whats that? You get a paper payroll check mailed? Silly rabbit, we told you to get direct deposit so you can send your money to a bankster.
Yep. As we continue to throw all the good things we created in the last century and leave our kids the bad.
glinda
(14,807 posts)WE must do something!
world wide wally
(21,757 posts)Wasn't it just horrible how that Obamacare guy called Americans stupid?
riverbendviewgal
(4,254 posts)And some not to home but to post office boxes and neighbood boxes. It is important to keep the Post Office alive for money orders and pkg mailing.
Our govt will be limiting home delivery except in rural areas where commercial for profit do not want to go.
The ones no home delivery is hard is senior and invalids.
vkkv
(3,384 posts)- to let private corporations take over?
Examples:
Post Office
National Parks
Public Education
Space Program
Pensions and other retirement benefits
Public utilities.
Public health
Medicare
Social Security
Student loan program
Private (mercenary) armies, eg: Blackwater Inc.
These are only a few examples of where Republican leaders vote to dismantle public institutions so to privatize the profits while creating higher costs for the public.
phantom power
(25,966 posts)The GOP has been relentlessly peddling the meme that private industry can do anything better than government. The Democrats have remained mostly silent in the face of the onslaught, or for that matter hopped on the bandwagon.
vkkv
(3,384 posts)and financing.
It is obvious that our elections have become too long, too expensive and politicians will write laws that are going to get them the most election funding from large donors -that, is not you and me.
Voters here in the U.S. must demand PUBLICLY FINANCED ELECTIONS with strict spending limits because if you look at the big picture, we ARE ALREADY PAYING for elections through the high costs of insurance, education, prisons, crime, pharmaceuticals, energy, food (prices could sky-rocket with thanks to Mansanto) and even war. Much of the money you spend on goods goes into the pockets of a politician who may vote on legislation that is bad for you or worse, for the entire country.
You know the saying, "the best Congress money can buy! "
We are quickly on our way to becoming a third-world country.
Pangolino
(32 posts)Canada Post is a Crown Corporation with incredibly high rates that are a serious impediment for small businesses (i.e. it's so expensive to ship things that it's just not worth doing in many cases). There isn't any political party in Canada that has a vision of the Post Office as a real public utility. Hopefully those of you in the U.S. can maintain that aspect of your Postal System* - it's damn useful to be able to move objects from place to place affordably. I think both our cultures support this disastrously incorrect idea that "for-profit system = all-around efficiencies", and even people on the left have trouble thinking outside of that frame.
(*not least because many Canadians use the U.S. Postal System in lieu of our deficient one!).